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Nintendo Gives No Information to Their Voice Actors?

When it comes to Fire Emblem Fates, the localisation is not doing too well at the moment. From claims of censorship in regard to mini games and ‘risque’ content being removed to talk of the script being butchered and the voice acting being pretty forgettable, it’s like everything that can go wrong in the localisation process has indeed gone wrong.

But now, a new article from gaming site Niche Gamer has brought up another reason the localisation effort isn’t going so well. Namely, because the voice cast for the game don’t know a whole lot about the characters they’re playing or their role in the storyline. As said by Rena Strober in an interview about the game with Youtube channel Super Geeked Up:

You’re not allowed to know the title of the game, you don’t usually know your character, you don’t know anything about it, because it’s very secret information

So I didn’t know I was hired as a singer, and a speaker, but here was this character that I knew singing was her power. So I just sort of did it and had a great time.

Here’s the original video where the quote is from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-lybyJ-yVg

It’s pretty shocking really. After all, imagine if a TV show or movie did this. Like, someone got a one episode role in Doctor Who and wasn’t told exactly who they were playing, what their history was beforehand or whether said role included a lot of singing. You would get absolutely godawful performances, because actors and actresses can’t do their job if they don’t really know who they’re supposed to be portraying or their part in the story is. Yet apparently, this is somehow the case in the Nintendo Treehouse when it comes to video game localisation.

But the story doesn’t end then. Apparently, NicheGamer say that Rena Strober has contacted them after their article to say that it’s completely wrong, and that of course the cast are given information about character traits and history. This makes a lot more sense, but also comes across as slightly suspicious given that the original source video said the exact opposite thing. A mistake under pressure perhaps? Or a last minute attempt to backpedal after someone at the company saw the allegations being posted online? Hopefully it’s the former.

So what do you think of this? Do you think these claims are true, and that the voice cast doesn’t actually know too much about the game they’re supposedly working on? Or is the whole thing a misunderstanding based on a few poorly thought out comments in an interview? Post your thoughts below or at the Gaming Reinvented forums today!